Daily Cartoon! MIGHTY MAX: E.8: “Norman’s Conquest”

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Today’s show is Mighty Max. This is another show that I know in name only. I’ve heard of it, never seen it, never owned toys and never played the video games. So, I had to head to the handy-dandy internet to do some background research on this show before I just jump in blind.

Apparently, Max is just a kid who gets an Egyptian statue mysteriously sent to him one day. He drops the statue and it smashes revealing the cap that becomes his trademark. He is then introduced to Virgil and Norman who become his crew and they travel around the world defending Earth from Skullmaster and his minions.

OK, this sounds pretty fun and an easy-enough premise. The show ran for 40 episodes between 1993 and 1994 and seems to have a pretty loyal following. I’ll be honest, I’m kind of looking forward to checking this out after the little bit of research I did. Sounds like a good time.

So, with that said, let’s watch a cartoon!

Mighty Max: E.8: “Norman’s Conquest”

Originally Aired: October 27, 1993

Plot:

So the opening theme sequence shows Max, Virgil (some kind of wizened bird friend…you can tell because he wears glasses) and Norman (a kind of Viking bodyguard heavy) traveling through space and time via transportational portal as they fight the Skullmaster and his associates. OK, I get the basics. So far, so good.

We open in Boulder, Colorado where a couple of excavators have unearthed an old-looking axe that they’re going to send back to England to have cataloged. One of the explorers takes the items they’ve found and sets off while the other stays behind to continue digging in the ice and snow.

Suddenly, a giant monster erupts from under the thick ice. The remaining explorer begs for his life and is swatted away for his troubles. The monster screams for Norman.

We cut to Max in school, just about to take a test, but when he looks at his paper, he gets an urgent message with directions to a portal. Max fakes an illness to get out of the test and heads to the portal. He arrives in a junkyard where he’s met by Virgil and, also, the monster from Boulder – who is called Spike – who is tossing wrecked cars around like it’s nobody’s business.

Norman arrives on the scene and it’s immediately obvious that him and Spike have a history together. Just when it looks as if Spike is going to finish Norman, Max uses a giant magnet-crane to pull Spike away and drop him in a compactor. They assume he’s finished, but Spike emerges almost immediately and continues causing a ruckus as Max and friends decide to run.

The trio thinks they’ve gotten away from Spike and during a slow moment, Norman fills us in on his back story with Spike. Ten-thousand years ago, Spike’s clan invaded Norman’s town. Norman’s father is killed by Spike while Norman is just a boy and Norman blames himself for not being able to get his father his axe in time.

The three return to Norman’s home: Boulder, Colorado to retrieve the long-lost war-axe. Spike is already there waiting, but Norman has come to terms with having to eliminate Spike to eradicate the guilt of his father’s death. While Norman and Spike do battle, Max and Virgil find out from the remaining explorer who is still there that the axe has been discovered, but is now in England.

Virgil is able to open a quickie-portal so they can retrieve the axe in England and get it to Norman who could use the confidence boost that wielding his father’s axe would bring. The crew is able to get the axe from the English museum and get it to Norman who gets the Hulk-up boost from having the weapon.

Norman, in lieu of slicing up Spike, just knocks him off the side of a cliff where he is then buried by an avalanche. Norman then takes some alone time to pray to his father and return the axe to him spiritually.

Final Thoughts:

First impression, this show was a lot less exciting than I had imagined it being. A lot hinges on the ability for Virgil to read some scripture about where portals can be found, but when they needed a portal to retrieve the axe in England, it felt like they were able to drum one up without issue.

Also – and this is a continuity issue – when they do get the axe, they didn’t bring it back through the portal with them. They had some museum security guards to distract to give themselves the chance to escape, but they leave the axe behind once they do create the diversion. Just something that really bugged me while watching.

All in all, nothing of much depth here. I wasn’t very into the characters and the story was pretty weak. Spike never seemed like a major threat and it felt like it was just a matter of time before he was vanquished.

This may have just been a weak episode as a whole. It’s hard to judge a series by just one installment, but there wasn’t anything about this show that makes me feel like I need to sit down and watch the series from the beginning. It’s not something I’d never watch again, but nothing I’m in a hurry to watch more of either.

Apparently, there is a DVD set out there if you’re looking for more Mighty Max. Like I said earlier, it’s only a 40 episode series so it wouldn’t consume your life if you decided to binge.